10416. And rose up to play. That this signifies the consequent festivity of their interiors, and consent, is evident from the signification of “playing,” as being the festivity of the interiors; for play comes from this, because it is an activity of the body which comes forth as an effect from gladness of mind; and all festivity and gladness are from the delights of the loves in which the man is. That consent also is signified, is because all interior festivity has consent in it; for if anything dissents and is contradictory, the festivity perishes. Interior festivity is in man’s freedom; and all freedom is from love that is not opposed.

[2] As in the Word internal things are described by external, so likewise the joys and gladnesses which are in the interiors of man are described by plays and dances, as in the following passages, in Jeremiah:

The city shall be builded upon its own heap, then shall confession go forth from them, and the voice of them that play (Jeremiah 30:18-19).

Anew will I build thee, that thou mayest be built, O virgin of Israel; anew shalt thou deck thy timbrels, and shalt go forth into the dance of them that play. Their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all; and the virgin shall rejoice in the dance, and the young and the old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy (Jeremiah 31:4, 12-13).

The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls, playing (Zech. 8:5).

Praise ye the name of Jehovah with the timbrel and dance (Psalms 149:2-3; 150:4).

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing (Psalms 30:11).

The joy of our heart hath ceased; our dance is turned into mourning (Lam. 5:15).

[3] As “plays” and “dances” signified the joys and gladnesses of the interiors which are from love, therefore after the Egyptians were sunk in the sea Suph, Miriam with the women went forth with timbrels into dances (Exodus 15:20); and therefore also David, when the ark was brought out of the house of Obededom, into the city of David, leaped and danced before Jehovah (2 Samuel 6:12, 16).

[4] That interior things are set forth and described in the Word by exterior ones, is evident from these words in David:

Thou madest the sea, great and wide in spaces, there go the ships; Leviathan whom Thou hast formed to play therein (Psalms 104:25-26);

he who does not know that there is a spiritual sense in every detail of the Word, knows no otherwise than that by the “sea” and by “ships” are here meant the sea and ships, by “Leviathan,” the whales which are therein, and by “playing,” their races and associations together. Yet the Word, which is Divine in respect to every jot, does not consist of such things; but when instead of these there are understood the spiritual things which are signified, then it becomes Divine. In the internal sense the “sea” denotes a gathering together of memory-truths, thus what is external with man and in the church; “ships” denote knowledges and doctrinal things from the Word; “Leviathan” denotes memory-knowledge in general; and “playing” denotes the delight from these things. (That the “sea” denotes a gathering together of memory-truths, see n. 28, 2850, 8184, 9340; that “ships” denote knowledges and doctrinal things from the Word, n. 1977, 6385; and that “Leviathan” denotes memory-knowledge in general, see n. 7293.) Thus “to play” denotes the delight and festivity from these things, which results when memory-knowledges confirm spiritual things, and are in agreement with them.